Not first build, first in several years..

[jalek]

My old Barton core 2800's about had it, the fan on the ATI 9600DX siezed and when I looked at AGP replacements, it appears that a PCI-E card would be better anyway. It's been a while...

I thought maybe something with mild OC capabilities and an upgrade path to DX10 later.

Sunbeam IC-ZORRO-SVBK ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $42.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811166031

GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express $108.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813128017

XFX PVT71PUDP3 GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 $179.99 $30 rebate
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814150202

Corsair 520HX Power Supply $119.99 $10 rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817139001

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz $179.00

CORSAIR XMS2 2 x 1GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $236.00 $40 rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145590

2 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB SATA $149.98
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822144701

LITE-ON SATA Combo Drive $25.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106040

(original) Subtotal: $958.91

---
New Subtotal: $1042.93 with $80 in MIR. Better P/S, GPU, HDD than I started with. Dropped the CPU cooler for now since it went up overnight.

 

[jalek]

If your looking for somthing with flair that's fine but make sure it's a good PSU.

The LED's not a consideration, the numbers on paper looked good.

See PSU 101 for some helpful information.

Will do.

 

[Athalus_nubie]

Sounds like a good system, though i second the use of a better PSU if you plan on OCing, nothing like losing a system to a faulty PSU to make you think twice about quality ;p
You sure you dont want to go for a socket am2 x2 proccessor instead though? would bring the price of mobo, processor and ram down, so you could go for a better gpu?
just a thought ;p

 

[f1nal_0men]

Here is a build for cheaper, and you would get much better frames. You might want to stick with 2GB of memory though!

 

[alcattle]

You are right about the RAM you don't need it for the E4300. Get DDR2-667 and yes 2Gig

Fine a good PSU (I like Antec) but there are many good brands outthere.


BIG AL IN SEATTLE

 

[evongugg]

As far as power supply you need something with 17-19 amps on the 12v rails.

Top Tier PSU:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

Exhaustive PSU review:
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/xbit-labs-psu-reviews-reviews-ftopict210122.html

Silent PSUs
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html

 

[Fustigator]

eVGA GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 $124.99

Seems to me that you could get a lot more video card for not a lot more money. If you plan to use this for games I'd give some thought to something in a 7900 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130074

Or if you prefer ATI (AMD), perhaps a 1950 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814195029

For a little over $200 you would get a serious increase in gaming quality.

 

[jalek]

Top Tier PSU:

Well, that's what I needed, the brands I was looking at were all listed in Tier 5 there.

After going through several links, I think the Corsair 520HX looks good, and it's only $10 more after rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817139001

Thanks.

 

[jalek]

You are right about the RAM you don't need it for the E4300. Get DDR2-667

I've always gone cheap on RAM, and seemingly always regretted it. I'm thinking more about the eventual replacement processor with the DDR-800. Of course at that time, I expect I'll have to add to it for Vista.

The price difference between 667 and 800 looks pretty negligible at the moment. OCZ Gold's actually cheaper at the faster speed before rebates.

 

[jalek]

You sure you dont want to go for a socket am2 x2 proccessor instead though?

The 4200 Windsor's at the same price point. I could use the MSI K9 Platinum, which would mean using the same brands I've been using for the same price as the c2d. That would be a much better board..